One, Two, Eighteen
by xliterati
Summary: Birthdays are a peculiar thing.


There is a box in the middle of his desk. It's black, wrapped with a fine green ribbon and tied at the top in a bow.

It's small and when Warner picks it up to examine it he can hear something shift inside of it.

"It's a belated birthday present."

Warner spins at the sound of her (his beloved, his very _heart_) voice and finds Juliette swinging her legs back and forth from the windowsill. Her eyes are alight with mischief and she's biting her bottom lip to stop herself from grinning widely.

He walks over slowly to her with a question in his eyes.

"Open it!"

Warner says nothing but moves forward to place a chaste kiss in her hair. Slowly he draws back the green ribbon to open the box.

"Why the green?" he whispers softly, eyes still on the black box.

Juliette's thumb grazes the inside of his wrist and she says, "They're the exact shade of your eyes."

He looks up stunned. Fixated. In awe. And Juliette blushes so hard he can feel the heat from her cheeks as he kisses her softly.

When he pulls back he sees her eyeing the box and he opens it carefully.

"A collar?"

The incredulity laced in his voice is so much that Juliette can't help from laughing. She nods once, twice, furiously and Warner looks at her in shock.

"You've gifted me a collar?"

"Yes. Yes I have."

She says nothing more and Warner steps back to examine the plain silver collar in the light. No etchings, no marks, it is clean and unmarked.

"Is this a kink thing?" he asks, unable to hide the grin forming on his lips as he sees her redden once more.

"No! Aaron god!" her flustered reply hits every nerve inside of him.

Juliette shakes her head and then gets up from her position, "It's the first in a series of gifts. Your second gift is waiting for you outside. I would've brought it in but… you'll see."

She grabs his hand and pulls him in the direction of the door, leading him out of the house.

"What do you mean a 'series of gifts'? What does that mean?" he asks confused, dazed, light from the amount of happiness he feels from a damned _collar_.

The sun hits Warner in a way that seems foreign to Juliette. When she looks at him she swears there is a halo around his glowing head, and that every inch of him seems to be shining.

"You're smart you'll figure it out," she teases in a whisper.

He tries to catch the side of her face with his hand but she's too quick and moves pulling him forward again.

Warner sees James seated on the grass laughing by himself but it is when he turns around to face him and Juliette that Warner realizes the reason for the little boy's smile.

"Present number two my love," Juliette whispers in his ear.

James is holding a small furry animal in his arms. It's golden and licking the inside of the boy's palm.

"This is for you Warner," James nearly yells from excitement.

The small creature folds up in Warner's arms and stares at him with a neutral expression.

There are words he should say, should be able to say, that he is very capable of forming, but for the life of him he _can't_.

In seconds the dog is furrowing around in Warner's arms and it's so alive, so warm, so small.

"What are we naming it?" James quips quickly.

Juliette leans over and ruffles James' hair before placing her hands on his shoulders. "Well kiddo Warner gets to decide since the dog is his now."

James looks up at Warner intensely and Juliette looks at him as well but more with a worry in her eyes.

He hasn't spoken yet.

"Adam found the puppy on the side of the road. It looked like it had been abandoned and when he brought him to me I had the idea to gift him to you. I know you like dogs," Juliette explained, trying to reason Warner into saying something, anything.

"What is this?" Warner finally chokes out, his voice hoarse and his eyes trained solely on the puppy in his arms.

James snorts. "It's a dog Warner. For an ex commander you're not very smart sometimes."

"James," Juliette softly chastised.

She finally moves from behind James and stands before Warner. His eyes feel heavy like he can't look straight at her. She reaches to pet the head of the small pup and then softly kisses Warner on the cheek.

"He's yours."

There is a moment where he nearly trips over the words she's saying. His. _His_. How strange, how odd, what an awful feeling to have something belong to you. He has yet to be accustomed to Juliette's weight in his bed, to the two brothers he never knew were his. And now this small, helpless thing that wrestled in his arms belonged to him too.

What a strange, encompassing feeling.

"Do you like her?" James whispers, careful not to intrude on the private moment between Juliette and Warner.

"It's a her?" comes Warner's strangled voice and he quickly clears his throat to save himself from further embarrassment.

"Yeah, Adam said so," James explained with a smile.

"Can I play with her some more I promise I won't let her pee on anything!" the boy says, refraining from jumping up and down.

Warner wordlessly, still reeling from the shock, hands the puppy to James, who is all to eager with his outstretched arms.

"Juliette did you give him my present yet?"

Warner's eyes widen as he looks at his younger brother. "You got me something too?"

James nods furiously. "Of course. I hope you like it, I didn't know what else to get."

Warner falls shakily to his knees and looks up at James, their eyes levelled. "Anything you gift me, anything at all, will be perfect and I will love it. Know that, please know that."

James seems embarrassed from Warner's admission but then with his free arm wraps it around the back of Warner's neck.

"Come on birthday boy we need to get to your other birthday presents!"

Warner gets up slowly and looks at Juliette with such sincerity that she can't seem to meet his eyes.

"You did this for me?" he asks completely taken aback by her gesture.

"Of course," Juliette says quickly, "I love you and I want the best for you and when you said you'd never gotten presents before I needed you to know what that happiness felt like. So I sought to make it possible. You should know that you are deserving of all this and more."

Warner is stunned speechless and his hands fall to Juliette's waist. Her hands reach up to play with the pocket of his shirt and when she looks up at him again she smiles.

"You saved me in so many ways. Did you know that? When everyone was terrified of me, everyone thought of me as a psychotic monster, _you _were the one that told me I shouldn't be ashamed of what I was, that I was magnificent, powerful, amazing. You made me feel _amazing_. I believed it in the end, and I want you to believe me every time I tell you that I love you. I want you to believe you are deserving of love. It is the very least I can do for you because I love you," Juliette says.

As if she hasn't just given Warner the greatest happiness he's ever felt, as if she hasn't just ripped something akin to eternal summer beneath his skin. He's drowning with her warmth, her love, her smile, her eyes, her words, her _everything_.

"I love you," he finally manages out, and in seconds Juliette's lips are on his.

When she pulls away she grazes her nose against his and says, "There are still eighteen more presents to unwrap!"

Warner raises his eyebrows. "Eighteen?"

"Well," Juliette starts slowly, "You've gotten two already, and there are eighteen left. Twenty in total. One for every birthday I missed. Every year that I didn't know you. _Really _know you."

He is grinning before he even knows it and Juliette's laughter settles around him like an anchor that's ready to let his heart soar as high as possible only to have it fall back into the sound of her.


End file.
